There is a lot of complaint about the after-market for Meeroos. I prefer to think the folk at Malvern are puzzled and at a loss as to what, if anything, they can do; because I don't want to believe they knew what would happen.

The current state of the market is that we've been flooded by a HUGE number (probably upwards of 250,000 .. I've seen estimates staying far fewer were sold from the main store, but I say those analysis are flawed) pop-and-drop nests. That is, given the genetics system, I estimate the odds of getting "the best" 'roo coat or eyes at about 1 in 900, and the odds of getting any "fairly good" 'roo coat or eyes at about 45 in 900. At a price of L$1000 per 'roo, if you can sell the "fairly good" 'roos at an average price L$10,000 and dump the junk at around L$500 you're almost guaranteed to make money. That being the case, it's no surprise many stepped in to buy huge numbers of 'roos. It's a cash cow for the first few.

The effect of this gold rush is a sudden and precipitous drop in the secondary market. The folks at Malvern, I imagine, are dancing in the aisles, though. I'd estimate they've taken in about USD $1,000,000 in the first month.
If they are, I caution them to read on and think very carefully about what they'll do with all that money.

Luckily, this condition can't hold. We're already into the next phase where nobody wants to buy any 'roos at any rice because all they see is "junk" and "everyone ELSE gets good stuff". Those few who attempted to play the game I prefer to believer Malvern intended them to play are becoming discouraged and threatening to drop out, or to release their 'roos rather than attempt to sell them.

The effect of this market revolt is two-fold.

First, it has the strongly positive effect of pushing the gamblers out of the market. Some of them will have made money, some lost, but, since people won't buy their over-priced pop-and-drop starters, they'll give up. They'll never completely go away, but they should, eventually, fade into the background.

Second, and this is mainly cautionary to the folk at Malvern, there will be a huge drop in sales at the main store. Basically, they've front-end loaded about 250,000 units of sales and should be prepared for a few lean months as that excess bleeds off and sales stabilize at more realistic levels. What I'm saying is: Malvern, you should expect to need some of that early-on cash to cover any shortfalls until the market re-establishes itself.

So .. what next?

Well, the market is dead. You can't expect to make money there.

What you should be doing is playing the regard game.

Forget sales. Sure, keep and coax the most promising nests. But keep your population stable. And keep it low enough you can afford to maintain it without income for the next 60 to 90 days.

Pet heavily. Not your SL partner .. pet your 'roos. Talk to the Old Hag ... er ... Oracle if you want. Pick up what treasure you can. But you'll be petting and releasing and that's a win-win. Not only do you get 10 points when you pet, but you also get 250 points when you release. It's almost a no-brainer for increasing your regard.

As time goes on your regard will soar. Sure, your early-on starters are going to produce mainly junk, but junk is what you want. Breed em and release em.

Every few weeks go back to the main store and purchase only ONE starter to keep your costs low. Use it to swap out your aging early-on starters. Eventually, the high regard for the starters parents, Levio and Dawnara, the off-spring from your well-petted and highly regarded starters, and your own personal high regard should lead to better traits which could never appear during the first, gold-rush phase we've just gone through.

Soon after, the secondary market should begin to re-establish itself and prices should stabilize at reasonable levels.

You, having stuck it out, will be ahead of the game compared to the newcomers who will be attracted to the newly-re-established market. You'll have a HUGE regard and they'll need weeks, or months, to catch up. Meanwhile, you're producing stuff they can't get from starters until their own regard increases. Basically, you'll be producing more advanced 'roos than they can and you'll have a supply of customers for your (now truly more rare) 'roos willing to pay reasonable, not inflated, prices.